Downtown U.s. Jail Hit By Crowding

November 30, 1988|By Ray Gibson.

While a federal judge grapples with plans to relieve overcrowding at the Cook County Jail, the Metropolitan Correctional Center that houses federal inmates and suspects awaiting federal trial also is filled beyond its capacity, jail officials said Tuesday.

The distinctive federal jail at 71 W. Van Buren St., houses 576 inmates-213 more than it was designed to hold, according to a federal Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman.

The overcrowding, like that at Cook County Jail, has forced administrators to assign inmates mattresses on the floor and to crowd inmates in cells, according to attorneys familiar with the jail.

Although conditions at the two jails may be similar, only county officials are under federal court orders, from Judge Milton Shadur of U.S. District Court, to maintain an inmate population within their jail`s capacity. The federal intervention into the county jail`s day-to-day operations is the result of a federal lawsuit brought on behalf of county inmates challenging the constitutionality of jail conditions.

Despite complaints to prison watchdog organizations such as the John Howard Association, no federal lawsuit has ever been filed regarding conditions at the federal jail, said Michael Mahoney, executive director of the association.

The federal jail has been experiencing overcrowding problems for at least the last year.

In an effort to relieve overcrowding there, federal officials freed up about 100 dormitory-style beds at the facility in October, 1987, by moving out work release inmates who used to report nightly, said Irene Piechota, acting administrative assistant at the jail.

The work release program now is run by the Salvation Army at 105 S. Ashland Ave. The organization has a contract to provide 140 beds a year at a cost of about $1.7 million, said Maj. Roy Rowland, a Salvation Army spokesman. A similar move is under discussion by county officials in an effort to free up 350 beds at the county jail.

Piechota said the federal facility also is seeking to make available another 65 beds by halving the number of prisoners assigned from federal prisons to handle the institution`s housekeeping and food service chores.

Piechota said the jail has been double-celling some of its inmates in the 265 single cells at the facility, but she said no figures were available on the extent of the practice.

Kathryn Johnson, another spokesman for the federal agency, said Chicago`s overcrowding is typical of the nation`s federal prison system. Nationally, federal prisons house 45,382 inmates, fully 62 percent over the capacity of the jails. According to figures from the agency, the overcrowding of male inmates at the federal jail in Chicago is worse than at jails in New York and California.

Conditions at the jail are not expected to improve, Piechota said. While she said there were no projections available on increases in inmate population, jail officials are expecting ``even more inmates into the system.``

Recently enacted federal drug laws and changes in federal sentencing guidelines also could add to the burden of inmates.

Changes in sentencing guidelines, currently challenged in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, would virtually eliminate probation for federal crimes.